Carolina Crossroads Restaurant Review

: The historic Carolina Inn underwent a handsome renovation befitting its status as a luxury hotel, but its cheerful yellow dining room remains almost unchanged. Within these sunny walls you are likely to see UNC coaches, famous actors in town for Playmakers’ productions, Nobel prize-winning scientists, and well-known writers who call this literary community home. Chef James Clark’s seasonal menu is designed to please all sorts of tastes, any time of day. For breakfast, try the healthy farmers market omelet or the hearty red velvet pancakes with syrup and sweetened cream cheese. At lunch, the menu offers such fare as the Inn Burger topped with pimento cheese and fried green tomatoes, a yellow fin tuna salad or a Southern-style chicken pie. Dinner entrées may include roasted quail stuffed with sausage and topped with bourbon brown butter, catfish with shrimp etouffée on Carolina rice, and beef tenderloin with local shiitakes and a muscadine beurre rouge. Don’t fill up before trying the basil lemon panna cotta or the praline bread pudding with caramel cinnamon ice cream. The wine list changes often, but selections are designed to complement the menu, and after-dinner drinks include respectable ports, sherries and Cognacs. The cozy bar across the hall is the place to see and be seen while sipping Knob Hill on the rocks and noshing sweet potato fries.